1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of creating a color chart for color evaluation and an information processing apparatus thereof and, for example, to a method of generating a color chart for color evaluation, which is used upon making color reproduction evaluation of a printed material and the like and an information processing apparatus thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
For example, conventional color evaluation of printed materials has been made using color charts specified by the International standards or industry associations, color charts uniquely developed by print companies, or the like. This color evaluation adopts a method: a chart which is prepared in advance is printed, the printed color patches undergo visual confirmation, or chromaticity measurement or density measurement using a spectrum color-difference meter or densitometer, thus examining if their values fall within a specified area. The color patch is a color image of a predetermined area used as a color sample of measurement target.
In this manner, the states of printers, ink densities, and the like are confirmed using color charts. As representative color charts used, for example, ISO12642 (IT8.7/3) or JMPA color patches (382 patches) are used. All these color charts are used upon evaluating color reproduction.
As a color evaluation technique, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 2003-125218 and 2003-298862 have been proposed.
However, the above prior arts suffer various problems as follows.
Since a ready-made color chart for color evaluation is created for the purpose of covering the entire color space, the above measurement of color patches for color evaluation takes a very long time. For this reason, upon executing color evaluation by the conventional method when all colors need not be checked, colors which need not be checked undergo chromaticity measurement or density measurement to examine if their values falls within the specification area. Therefore, not only is a long measurement time required, but further time to check the measurement results is required as well.
When a ready-made color chart for color evaluation includes a large number of color patches, it is often impossible to print these color patches on a margin region of a printed material.